68 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 



himself. To the last he was as keen as in his young days, 

 regarding November i as the day when the woodlands 

 were stripped for business. A political friend once 

 suggested to him that the cultivation of corn would 

 cease, owing to free trade. The Squire replied, " So 

 much the better, for I shall ride over a grass country." 

 The last hunting act of his life was to review the 1858 

 entry, when he said to Carter, his kennel huntsman, 

 " Well, they seem as beautiful as they can be." At his 

 death he had ninety couples of hounds in the kennel 

 and thirty-nine horses in the stable. 



Though he was a member of the Jockey Club, and 

 during one year had three horses in training, he never 

 took any active interest in flat racing ; nor did he take 

 pains to conceal his disgust with the chicanery of the 

 turf. On one occasion a bill for ;^3oo was handed 

 round for discount in the Jockey Club rooms, for 

 which the highest offer was three hundred pence, both 

 drawer and acceptor being known to be under a cloud. 

 Smith looked at the signatures, saw that they were 

 those of two old schoolfellows, immediately gave a 

 cheque for the full amount, and put the bill behind the 

 fire. As a landlord, he conscientiously fulfilled his 

 duties, nor did he neglect the business of his Welsh 

 quarries. It was, indeed, his summer delight to enter- 

 tain large house-parties at Vaynol and to explain to his 

 guests the working of the quarries, or to take them in 

 his yacht round the coast. 



